Upgrades complete at Exeter water treatment plant

EXETER — Work has wrapped up on a green project aimed at reducing wastewater by recycling some of it at the town's water treatment plant.

Jason Schreiber

EXETER — Work has wrapped up on a green project aimed at reducing wastewater by recycling some of it at the town's water treatment plant.

Crews recently finished the $255,720 upgrade to equipment at a pump station at the treatment plant on Portsmouth Avenue.

The improvement project is expected to lower sewage pumping and treatment costs because partially treated water, which has valuable chemicals used in the water treatment process, will be recycled at the water treatment plant and no longer wasted.

Town Manager Russ Dean said the process will result in far less wastewater being sent to the wastewater treatment plant on Newfields Road.

The upgrades began after voters in 2012 OK'd a warrant article to move ahead with the project.

The original warrant article sought $284,625, but the total cost came at $255,720, said Michael Jeffers, the town's water and sewer managing engineer.

As part of the project, the town replaced 22-year-old waste pumps and made other critical upgrades.

Jeffers said the only work left is some painting of walls at the pump station. That work should be completed early this week.

"Everything is functional," Jeffers said of the upgraded system.

Before the improvements, Jeffers said an estimated 13 percent of all the groundwater pumped into the water treatment plant was sent to the wastewater treatment plant.

That percentage should be cut in half with the new system, he said.

The water treatment plant receives raw water from the Exeter Reservoir, Exeter River, and Skinner Springs in Stratham.

Officials estimate the project will result in up to 42 million fewer gallons being wasted and 42 million gallons less pumped from the reservoir and Exeter River.

The recycle system will also reduce the number of sanitary sewer overflows and combined sewer overflows.

"It's more beneficial to the sewer because the sewers in town are overloaded and also the waste from a water treatment plant isn't really a heavy sanitary load like sewage," Jeffers said.

Twenty percent of the project was funded through the state Department of Environmental Services through grant forgiveness. Jeffers said that amounts to $51,144.

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